16 Answers

Beyond just the obvious (learning about Mars) enormous amount of information can be learned about how humans react to any number of things; the psychological effect of small numbers of people in isolation for a period of time, how the body reacts to prolonged types of stimuli, all the research that goes into creating n environment for survival in such a situation can be adapted for practical usage, etc etc. I’ll send this to matt Browne, he’s much better equipped to answer the details than I am.

I hear it on but they only have 1.5 million dollars earmarked for it an they are taking investments from businesses… building wonders motivates people to great things…just paying taxes for roads is boring….So I would say its for the worlds Morale.

Yes, Isabella was very reluctant at first and Columbus made the plan. But at some point he seemed to have convinced her. I guess her motive was gold and other treasures. Today’s motives also include knowledge. Many people don’t realize that understanding other planets also helps us understand Earth in a better way.

Something is a amiss if the main reason for doing something is the side effects. The so called space race to get a man on the moon worked because people really believed at the time that it made a difference. We know better now. The magic is gone.

@LostInParadise – The functionality of a rover doesn’t come close to the functionality of a human being. But an alternative would be sending highly sophisticated robots transmitting high-resolution data allowing humans to wear haptic fully-body suits and head-mounted displays to “walk” on Mars and “touch” it.